EchoStar III Satellite Recovered and Retired

EchoStar Corporation and Lockheed Martin announced today that the EchoStar III satellite has been successfully recovered following an anomaly that occurred in late July and retired per the FCC regulations.

“After the initial loss of contact, with a joint effort by EchoStar and Lockheed Martin, a command and control link was reestablished and deorbit maneuvers performed” said Derek de Bastos, chief technology officer for EchoStar Satellite Services L.L.C. “EchoStar III is now safely in a graveyard orbit more than 350 kilometers above the geostationary arc with its fuel and pressurants depleted, batteries drained, and systems shut down.”

EchoStar III, a Ku-band BSS satellite that provided coverage over the U.S., was a fully depreciated, non-revenue generating asset owned by EchoStar. Manufactured by Lockheed Martin and launched in 1997, EchoStar III exceeded its 15 year design life.

“Because of the robustness of the A2100 satellite design, our teams were able to command all the necessary recovery actions,” said Barry Noakes, commercial satellite chief engineer at Lockheed Martin.